Mother Goose Goes Hollywood - December 23, 1938

Classic Disney animation enthusiasts received an early Christmas present this year with the release last week of More Silly Symphonies in the Disney Treasures DVD series. Especially pleasing was the inclusion of a complete and uncut Mother Goose Goes Hollywood, which was released on this day in 1938.

Close to half of this Silly Symphony has remained in the Disney vault for years, due to the extreme caricatures presented of African American entertainers Cab Calloway, Fats Waller and the long controversial Stepin Fetchit. Leonard Maltin is there with the standard Treasures’ introduction provided for shorts with potential content problems. He also provides an excellent audio commentary that identifies all the celebrities featured in the film. Blemishes and all, Mother Goose Goes Hollywood is a revealing window to the popular culture of the late 1930s, and many of the then popular stars of the golden age of Hollywood.

Some of the more well known stars featured in the poster are the Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Laurel and Hardy, Charles Laughton, Edward G. Robinson, ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy and Katherinie Hepburn.